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Comment by nicoburns | Hacker News Reader

> Workstations don't really care about HDMI, that's for TVs.

And people who only have HDMI cables! I was using display port on my old MacBook, but I'm using HDMI on the new one as I already had an HDMI cable, but not a USB-C to DisplayPort one.

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I guess they thought that someone buying a 2000~5000$ machine wouldn't mind buying an extra 20$ video cable...

It's still useful to have at least one HDMI port. For things presenting at other people's offices, where you don't want to be carrying a cable or dongle around with you.

USB-C to DisplayPort cables are like $14 on Amazon. I'm responding to you using one. I have a MacBook Air in clamshell mode with 1 USB-C going to the display and a $10 hub that does Power Delivery and 3 USB-A ports for speakers, Yubikey, and external SSD for backup.

I had a M1 Mac Mini but I do occasionally want to take a Mac with me so I replaced it with the Air. I only slightly miss the extra ports on the Mini.

And what about my PS/2 keyboard and mouse?

I can send you an adapter for USBA.

Tangent: it's a personal pet peeve that Model M buckling-spring keyboards often pull too much power for modern PCs. This is particularly apparent with the PS/2-to-USB adapters but also happens with some PCs using "native" PS/2 connection. And then I got a fancy Unicomp Model M with native USB connection and... that does it too.

That was on a Dell desktop I had at a previous job. Not sure if it was just kinda crappy, or whether the inrush current on those Model Ms is just that big.

I haven't found a reliable HDMI setup for 4k at 60 FPS yet, while OTS display port has been fine. TBQH in this price point and market segment that's the minimum requirement, so I can understand why they don't ship with HDMI.

For standard lengths up to 10m any HDMI 2.0 cable from decent manufacturers, like AmazonBasics or Monoprice will be fine. For longer lengths it gets tricky and you have to be quite selective but that's a niche use case.

Also, the Mac Studio actually has an HDMI port.

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